X-12 Atomic Locomotive (Final version)

PavløvA_YT

Important note: I still really need bogies designed for this. 

 

In the 1950s, the United States of America were at the forefront of nuclear innovation, recently miniaturising a nuclear reactor and installing it on a submarine, creating a boat that never needed refuelling. The military wanted to do something similar, and intended on using nuclear-powered trains, which would never be influenced by fuel shortages! This is the X-12, a prototypical nuclear-powered train. It was never built, but if it existed, this Co'Co'Co+Co'Co' 2-carriage permanently-coupled locomotive would have weighed over 360 tonnes (concrete/lead shielding surrounding the reactor contributed to this), made 6,000 horsepower continuously (and over 12,000 horsepower on boost.)

P1 -- the locomotive itself, the big lump is the reactor, a 90cm*90cm*30cm cylinder of beryllium-moderated uranium sulfide-fueled energy.

P2 -- the tender, which acted as a supercooler, to cool reactor coolant (which would have likely been Sodium Potassium, or NaK).

 

There is still a protogen driving the train, I wonder what that means... ?